Angelfall: Penryn & the End of Days, Book 1 Author: | Language: English | ISBN:
B00935N0GE | Format: PDF
Angelfall: Penryn & the End of Days, Book 1 Description
It's been six weeks since angels of the apocalypse descended to demolish the modern world. Street gangs rule the day while fear and superstition rule the night. When warrior angels fly away with a helpless little girl, her 17-year-old sister, Penryn, will do anything to get her back.
Anything, including making a deal with an enemy angel.
Raffe is a warrior who lies broken and wingless on the street. After eons of fighting his own battles, he finds himself being rescued from a desperate situation by a half-starved teenage girl.
Traveling through a dark and twisted Northern California, they have only each other to rely on for survival. Together, they journey toward the angels' stronghold in San Francisco where Penryn will risk everything to rescue her sister, and Raffe will put himself at the mercy of his greatest enemies for the chance to be made whole again.
- Audible Audio Edition
- Listening Length: 8 hours and 44 minutes
- Program Type: Audiobook
- Version: Unabridged
- Publisher: Brilliance Audio
- Audible.com Release Date: August 28, 2012
- Whispersync for Voice: Ready
- Language: English
- ASIN: B00935N0GE
Its 4:30 in the morning as I write this, and I have just finished reading Angelfall. I started reading it this evening, thinking it would be just another YA novel -- good, but typical of the recently popular genre. I ended up enjoying it SO much I finished it in one sitting, and I had to immediately write up the review.
There have been several popular supernatural themes popping up over the last several years, from vampires and werewolves to faeries, witches and angels. I have personally not been a fan of the angel theme so far -- although it seems to be increasing in its popularity. However, if they begin being as good as this one, they might win me over.
Angelfall begins in a post-apocalyptic time -- think along the lines of McCarthy's 'The Road,' or The Book of Eli -- after an "armageddon" initiated by angels. The reader doesn't really discover exactly why this has happened, although there are some hints provided along the way. The heroine, Penryn, is a tough-but-vulnerable mix, along the lines of Buffy or Katniss. Her mother is a wonderful character addition in the book -- a schizophrenic that swings between being wonderfully brilliant and creepily crazy. The 'hero' is a tough/sarcastic guy who remains likable yet mysterious throughout. The story line follows Penryn as she journeys to save her crippled younger sister, who has apparently been abducted by angels.
What sets this book apart is not only the richness of the variety of characters, but the layers of themes and histories that make up the story. There is simply so much there to explore -- from Penryn's history with her mother, to her sister's injury, to the mysteries surrounding Raffe and the and the events leading up to the apocalypse itself.
If dark urban fantasy is a genre, Susan Ee's Angelfall is the best example of it that I've come across this year. Angelfall is dark, though not oppressively so, and it's fun to read even at times when the characters aren't having fun at all. Maybe even especially at those times. Even though it's a few weeks after the end of the world and what's left of society is going downhill fast, I still found the book not just entertaining but fun...a lot more so than, say, The Road, though at times the situations aren't any less grim.
The book itself has an overall feel reminiscent of Rob Thurman's Cal Leandros stories, if, say, the Alph had won the big battle on the first page. Ee evokes a world, through snatches of imagery and introspection and conversation, where survival means working around/with/in hiding from several distinct outside forces, each with its own well-considered agenda. Characters' near-obsessive motivations are tempered by physical limitations, constant fear and danger that can come from behind, above or below at any time. This is not a violent book per se, by my standards at least, but it doesn't shy away when violence is called for by the story. It's also not the kind of story where super-powerful characters whale on each other until it's time for the good guy to win.
The thing that makes this story stand out from the crowd is its characters, and the characters in this book are right up there in the Stackhouse/Kate Daniels/Anita Blake league. While Penryn Young, Angelfall's narrator/main character, shares some attributes with all of these very different female hero characters, I'd say in my view she most reminds me of the Hunter Kiss character from the Marjorie Liu series of the same name...minus the tattoos.
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